Taylor Fritz has missed his last chance to reach the semi-finals at the ATP NextGen Finals in Milan. The US-American lost against the group leader Alex de Minaur with 3:4 (8), 1:4 and 2:4.
Group leader Alex de Minaur should not be made easy in the third match of the group phase at the ATP NextGen Finals. Taylor Fritz wanted to use his chance to reach the semi-finals in Milan and put the Australian under pressure.
The spectators in the cathedral city saw great tennis from two youngsters in the best condition. Especially Fritz did his job very well and failed in the first run only because of the chances. The 21-year-old had six set points, but de Minaur was able to fend off all of them and won the decisive tiebreak with 10:8.
The set loss also meant that Fritz had to win the match in four sets to have a better set record than Andrey Rublev, who was second in the table ahead of Fritz. However, De Minaur came into the game better and better, confirmed his great form and finished with a 4:1 in the second set all semi-final dreams of his opponent.
The best player of the group also proved in the third set that he is next to Stefanos Tsitsipas title candidate in Milan and snatched his third victory with a smooth 4:3 (8), 4:1 and 4:2 victory.
Due to Fritz’ retirement last year’s finalist Andrey Rublev is in the semi-finals as second in the group and can hope for another chance at the tournament of the best eight youngsters. Last year the Russian failed in the title match against Hyeon Chung.